The Gathering – Planting in Tucson, AZ

Tucson, AZ hosts the annual Tucson Area Wiccan/Pagan (TAWN) Spring Festival. It has one of the highest population of people practising Wicca (a natural earth religion) in the nation. Students at Pima Community College are being drawn to the Reformed perspective because of its wholistic view of Scripture. Through the campus ministry they are encouraged to balance life from a biblical point of view. These are some things I (Jimmy Hildebrandt) have discussed with my students (mostly agnostic and Catholic) at the college where I teach “Religion and Popular Culture”. My wife and I have a calling to be leaders of a ministry with people who have little or no experience of God. We want to create a simple, safe environment for people who are apprehensive about God and the church. We want to create space to allow them to grapple with the truth of the gospel without feeling judged or condemned. This place will be inviting, full of grace and love – a place for people to find accountability as they grow in their relationship with Jesus.

For the past eight years since my family has moved to Tucson, there had been little to no collaboration between the RCA and CRC. Today our ministry is a concrete manifestation of this collaboration. Orangewood CRC (140 mi away in Phoenix) is our calling (parent) church while the RCA assists us in our financial accountability through Wayne Ribbens (an elder in The Journey, an RCA church) who acts as our Treasurer.

An important insight gained during the recent KEZ Leaders Retreat in VA is a reminder to let go of my self-responsibility – to be faithful in sowing the seed and showing the love of God yet acknowledge that church planting is primarily God’s mission. We are simply being invited to participate in God’s work. Another valuable insight gained from this retreat was the need to be on our “A-game” when it comes to relationships. People don’t care about titles or degrees, they want to know that you love them. More experienced church planters from other zones have admonished us to avoid launching a public worship gathering too soon. As a result of all this advice during the retreat, we have radically changed the trajectory of our approach to church planting. We intend to have a bi-weekly worship gathering of a handful of the committed. We want to be a home group-based plant. By January, we will have a pilot cell group to gather and disciple. The goal is to eventually have 8-10 cell groups, roughly 75 people, before having a public worship launch.

Our longing is to be free to fully engage all of the existing relationships we have as we seek to gather a group of God-followers. We recently hosted a neighborhood party attended by thirty people. Our neighbors were so excited that they declared this to be the start of an annual tradition for the community!

During the first couple of years we hope to build new relationships and deepen existing ones as we pray for God to gather a core group of people to live out the values of our ministry. The things we value will be the vision that shapes the new church God gathers. We value integrity to God’s Word, so The Gathering will focus on Gospel-centered teaching, preaching and discipleship. We value openness and authenticity, so The Gathering will be a place where people can be known and know others in a deeper way, in full acceptance, love and grace. We valuerelevance and believe the leaders we raise up will know the people and community well enough to bring teaching that is specific to their needs. We value spiritual disciplines and will call the church into a life of prayer, confession, fasting, celebration, solitude and service. We value gifts and will encourage and empower people to use what God has given them to offer to others in The Body. Finally, we value reproduction and will work to disciple and train leaders to offer to others what they’ve received and hope to send them out to plant new ministries.
~Jimmy Hildebrandt